Feb 19, 2006 - Dialect

Did I even spell that right? I hope so because that is all I have in my favor as far as sounding like an intelligent person.

I find myself thinking quite a bit about the way I talk. You know, that Texas dialect. Apparently it's a Texas thing because Oklahomans sure like to point it out. And it doesn't help any when you start to watch your home movies and hear yourself try to converse with others. Why is it that when we (Texans/Texas alumni) talk, as we get to the end of the sentence, we draaaaawwwww out that last word. So instead of just saying something like, "No, I haven't seen that movie yet". It comes out, "No I haven't seen that movie yea-et", "But I hope to see it on Munda-ey." My friends tell me it's cute but no matter what they say, when you are the person who speaks in this matter, there is nothing cute about it. My words have more syllables than they should.

I've tried talking properly, (only when I'm by myself) and this is no easy task. Did you know that in order to do it, you have to say your words quicker? Just get them out there and over with quickly. No dragging the vowels on and on like a song. Try it. It's quite difficult and takes practice. I haven't tried to correct this problem when I'm in an actual conversation because it takes too much thought. Words just seem to come out of my mouth before I can even think, "Ok now say it like this." Before I know it, I've already said something that sounds like I just walked out of the hills of Arkansas. Why couldn't my parents have heard this kind of talk and helped me? Of course these are the same parents that let me call "cartoons"... "carntoons" for all of my life and into adulthood. Luckily I fixed that problem as soon as I caught on. No, I won't tell how old I was.

I wish I could just write everything out because my spelling sounds great!